Gator seniors overcame summer of adversity to earn last shot at Final Four

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Last spring in wake of another Elite Eight disappointment, UF center Patric Young set aside personal gain and a chance to fulfill a lifelong NBA dream without giving it a second thought.

To have one more shot to reach the Final Four and one more season with three players he had known since all were Gators freshmen really was no decision at all.

"I just felt right away that I didn't want to leave school yet and I'm not going to get this opportunity again to play for a Final Four, to play for a national championship," Young said Friday. "I'm not going to get another chance to play with these guys I love, Casey Prather, Scottie (Wilbekin), Will (Yeguete). It was a no-brainer for me."

It all makes perfect sense now.

The Gators enter Saturday's matchup with Dayton riding a school-record 29-game winning streak and one game away from a long-awaited trip to the Final Four.

Young and the seniors have led the way.

But back in August, the Gators were "in complete shambles," UF coach Billy Donovan said earlier this week.

Wilbekin had been suspended for violating team rules; Yeguete was in the midst of an arduous recovery from offseason knee surgery and top recruit Chris Walker was academically ineligible.

Young himself had offseason surgery to remove a bone spur in his right ankle, adding to the long list of concerns for a group of seniors aching for a final NCAA Tournament run to remember.

"Compared with all the other years before, I don't think we've ever had so many questions regarding things that were out of our control," Young said. "But we all fought through it. We've all stuck it through."

The ultimate payoff awaits Florida on Saturday in the South Regional final.

The Gators (35-2) are 10-point favorites against Dayton, a No. 11 seed that started 1-5 in the Atlantic 10 while UF joined Kentucky as the only SEC school since the 1950s to go unbeaten in league play.

"We're really excited just to have the opportunity to be here," Young said. "Of course, at the beginning of the year, it's our goal to make it here. The fact that we have this opportunity, we're not going to let the moment get bigger than us."

Young and his fellow seniors have seen the moment slip away from them the past three seasons.

Young said, "It was pretty difficult. It would never hit me that the season was really over and that we actually weren't advancing, just that the opportunity slipped out of our hands. "

During two of the losses, to Butler in 2011 and Louisville in 2012, the Gators squandered 11-point second-half leads to lose.

Those defeats have fueled these seniors, as have the obstacles the Gators faced last summer.

"Some of the issues that happened during the summer was part of what brought us together as a team," Wilbekin said. "Just throughout the year, the type of games that we've been in and the grind of practice, it's just really a combination of all those things bringing us together to the team that we are today.

"It's a joy now to play with these guys and to spend time with them."

As the school year began, the Gators were adrift.

But during the next seven months, the Gators would set aside egos, embrace their head coach's wisdom and eventually coalesce into one of the best teams in school history.

UF's season-opener against North Florida certainly did not offer any indication of what was to come. The Gators' 78-69 win was as poor a defensive performance as Wilbekin — who was serving a five-game suspension — could recall.

"It was discouraging because at the end of last year we were such a good defensive team," Wilbekin said. "We dropped off a lot. It was frustrating, especially for us seniors. But Coach D was saying just to stick to the process; we had some younger guys.

"It was a process, we stuck to it and throughout the season we have gotten better and better."

UF now ranks third nationally in scoring defense (57.8 points allowed per game) and held UCLA nearly 14 points below its scoring average during Thursday's 79-68 win in the Sweet 16.

"I never lost confidence in our team," sophomore shooting guard Michael Frazier II said. "We battled through some adversity, but I always had faith we were going to get through it."

After such a rewarding journey, the Gators hope to keep on going.

Four seniors who have invested so much into a program, a school and a community do not want to return home without a national championship.

"They support us no matter what happens, whether we win or lose tomorrow," Young said of UF fans. "They all think we're everything to them, and they're everything to us. Of course we want to come back and bring it back for them and for all Gator Nation and for everyone who has come through this program.

"But ultimately, games are played, things happen in the past that are forgotten about, whatever it may be. It's just a game when you really think about it."